Originally “Food for Thought” was created as a food diary–a blog with daily entries about my personal focus on local food, farms and restaurants in Portland when the term locavore was new to the lexicon and blogging was a quirky endeavor. It first appeared online at Downeast Magazine in around 2001 and later commissioned by an enterprising editor at the Portland Press Herald where it ran for years until it morphed into the Golden Dish.
For better or worse, the space quickly became focused on restaurant reviews, a shaky moment for some or a stellar time for others.
It was exciting to eat my way through Portland’s restaurant renaissance. Suddenly it was no longer just Back Bay Grill and Fore Street as keepers of the flame but rather newcomers like Five Fifty Five, Bandol, Caiola’s, Hugo’s, Cinque Terre, Vignola and Duck Fat joined the group if only to make the old guard strive to be better.
Below are some photos from the past of dining in Portland, most around 2015-2016, as far back as my current Photoshop catalogue goes.
Five-fifty Five back in the day 2015 and much earlier in the early aughts
Now the neophytes are veterans. And the likes of the Salt Exchange, Evangeline, Bresca, Sonny’s, Havana South and the revamped Local 188 and Walters–and the “Rooms” (Front, Grill and Corner) all add up to a new order of Portland dining offering a worldly mix of cuisines.
Fore Street, 2015 when the bar did not have plexiglass separators
Critiquing restaurants is a critical pursuit that’s also entertaining (one hopes) and controversial. But over the long haul it’s also fattening for the reviewer, expensive for the blogger and ultimately becomes old hat and time to take a break.
But dining out is a pivotal pursuit for the foodie, and I won’t let it go entirely. Ultimately it will be part of the larger diary format that will also include my own travails at the stove to my frequent forays to farms, the farmers and farmer’s markets throughout the state.
A bottle of Bandol at Erik Dejarlais’ namesake Bandol or it might have been at Back Bay Grill
As a food community Maine is tremendous. What’s available to us locally, raised organically and sustainable is fairly complete. So many chefs set up shop in Maine because of the high quality and depth of heritage foods available.
In Portland we’re lucky to have great food resources. The newly revamped and enlarged Rosemont Market on Brighton Ave., for example, has added a butcher shop with local grass fed meats tended to by an onsite butcher.
Of course the farmer’s markets have hit their stride, where home cooks and professionals alike can get just about all they need for a great meal.
Like it or not, Whole Foods is a terrific store. In fact, the Portland branch is noted as being one of the highest grossing stores in the country. Who would have guessed that parsimonious Portlanders would embrace such an extravagant retailer?
Back in the day; owner co-owner Kit Paschal serving at Piccolo pre-Roustabout
Neiman Marcus, the Peninsula is ready for you!
Before Cheval co-owner Illma Lopez, standing, at Piccolo in the early days
In just a week Trader Joe’s will join the mix. I’ve been to Traders Joe’s once and was not very impressed. I visited the store on Route 1 just over the Tobin Bridge heading north. I don’t think the store represented Trader Joe’s at its finest. I look forward to the Portland outpost.
Great crowd at the much-missed Roustabout, later to become Drifters Wife 1 & 2
As a resource for exotic foods Portland ranks high. Recently I needed yuzu juice, which is a Japanese extract of sour lemon-lime. I found it at Oriental Sun on Congress. Several months ago the New York Times wrote about another variety of limes–dried sour limes. I searched everywhere for them in Portland without success. They are available mail order from Kalustyans. The Times recipe article showed how to use them in a dish of broiled shrimps’ with dried limes, a Middle Eastern dish that sounded fabulous.
Just last week, however, I needed roasted peanut oil, a staple in Chinese cooking. I was going to use it as the final drizzle in a terrific cream of corn soup recipe from Patricia Wells Paris Cookbook. In the recipe Wells gave a source in Paris where the oil could be ordered by mail. I wasn’t about to do that but planned to use the recommended alternatives, hazelnut or walnut oil.
Still I was curious if any stores here carried it. There it was at Hannaford’s, next to all the other oils and from a French distributor. I couldn’t believe it. Whole Foods did not carry it.
Shortly after that I needed another ingredient, one that I’d not used before. It was in Adam Perry Lang’s excellent barbecue book, Serious Barbecue. In his recipe for grilled tenderloin of beef part of the marinade included an ingredient called beef base in paste form. He noted a brand name, Better than Bouillon.
Again, Hannaford’s filled the bill. There it was in the dried soup section, bottles of the stuff.
Every food maven has a weakness for something ordinary. Velveeta Cheese, for example? I can’t remember the last time I’ve used it–it epitomizes the evils of processed foods.
Empire Chinese (2013?) when they used to serve inside
My weakness used to be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’ve avoided them for years but recently the appeal of that sweet and gooey spread has come back to taunt me.
Comfort food is another staple that we’ve all come to love, and the restaurants that serve it generally have nothing to do with smart eating. Moody’s, the Maine Diner and Cole Farms represent an unrepressed yen for the big and unhealthy platefuls of the stuff: deep fried chicken croquettes, a fried clam plate with all the fixings, real macaroni and cheese, unadulterated, not the gussied up kind marbled with exotica.
So when I was coming back from Lewiston recently and decided to take the back roads for some leaf peeping (the colors were actually better on the Maine Turnpike) I passed by Cole Farms and thought what the heck, as good a place as any for lunch.
The last time I was there I didn’t have nice things to say about it. In fact that particular blog entry produced the most emails I’d ever received. My unfortunate comment that caused the ruckus went something like “the room was filled with polyester and pot bellies.”
The old bar (and crowd) at Caiola’s now the stylish Cheval
Someone wrote that I managed to insult the entire state of Maine. You have to admit pot bellies are sweeping the nation and Maine is home to a lot of porkers–aren’t we one of the fattest states in the nation?
Portlanders are generally pretty fit, and if you count the heads at all the area health clubs where the entire city seems to be sweating en masse traveling across treadmills and cross-trainers it’s an effort that pays off.
But there I am. I was one of the youngest diners in the room–and I’m very middle-aged and constantly fighting off a potential pot belly.
The first Drifters Wife before the interiors were painted black
The closest thing to an organic ingredient at Cole Farms might be the generic drugs spiraling through the veins of its ancient clientele.
Still you can’t help but admire the restaurant and all that they do for their happy patrons–mostly senior citizens who eat three meals a day there costing less than meals at home. Widows and widowers eating alone at tables are treated royally by the accommodating staff and waitresses and diners are on a first name basis.
My own meal there which I had with a friend was less than memorable, but for under $20 the two of us had iced tea, biscuits, two entrees, with
The mural at Back Bay Grill
Cole slaw and dessert.
Whenever available I often order meal loaf from diner menus. It’s my test of whether they’re living up to the standard of diner fare.
At Moody’s, Maine Diner and Cole Farms, their respective meat loaves are not memorable. Cole Farm’s version had decent flavor but it arrived downing in that dreadful brown sauce, and the meat was under cooked. But the mashed potatoes were great and their Cole slaw, laced with Cole Farm’s commercially available dressing, is terrific. The biscuit however, was awful, served from plastic bags put into a warming oven. At least Moody’s and Maine Diner biscuits are house made and good.
The grape nut pudding at Cole Farms was an enormous portion and tasty. I’ll go back again if I’m in the neighborhood, which isn’t often.
These days what are my favorite dining spots? I have to say I enjoy cooking at home more than anything. But what I like better is the shopping for it–from our great farmer’s market and plentiful food stores. When I have the time I’ll go to Bisson’s Meat Market in Topsham or Curtis Meats in Warren, with an easy detour to Farmer’s Fare in Rockport. Along the way I stop at Moody’s for breakfast and lunch on the way back.
Table number 7 (lower left) the favorite table in Portland at Back Bay Grill
Last night I prepared corned beef, which I bought at Bisson’s who cures their own. I served it traditionally with all the fixings and couldn’t resist adding herb dumplings to the pot. Tonights it’s corned beef hash.
As for dining out, I’ve been to all the new restaurants in Portland many times over and when the mood allows I’ll let you know what I think of each one.
